Canada, Yukon Territory, Mount Logan Research

Mount Logan Research. A glaciological expedition led by me spent 42 days, from June 1 to July 13, on Mount Logan, carrying out a snow-pit sampling traverse and resurveying the snow saddle (5320 meters) between Russell Peak and Prospectors’ Peak (5630 meters). This col will be a future new ice-core site for paleoclimatic and atmospheric environmental studies. The automatic weather station that we installed in 1988 was still recording temperature, but was missing the anemometer. We used the King Trench route to simplify the logistics, which involved helicopter lifts of equipment and supplies to 4800 meters on the edge of the “football field.” Evacuation of equipment and samples was from the same point. The snow-pit stable isotope data show a vertical profile that can be interpreted in terms of tropospheric structure from 1780 meters on the Seward Glacier to 5920 meters on the West Peak. The main summit (5951 meters, 19,525 feet) was climbed on July 7 by R. Campbell, S. Chambers, J. Josephson and S. Richie. As usual, Andrew Williams provided air support from Kluane to the Quintino Sella Glacier.